She managed to grab all of her grocery bags as she tried to flip through her key chain. The rumble of a vehicle steadily approached and cut out close in her proximity.
"Karen!" Franklin's voice rang out in the cool night's air.
Her head snapped in his direction, seeing her friend jog across the street towards her.
"Now why can't you take multiple trips like a normal person?" he asked as he took the bags from her aching fingertips.
"Because I'm from the north," she simply said as she swiftly opened the door. "And we'd rather grab every bag possible to reduce the trips taken."
"Hey Karen," Michael's voice came as he leaned into the doorway.
"Well, come in," she said. "No sense in you hanging out of the house like that."
Michael stepped in, adjust his suit jacket. "I thought you hated me," he told her as he stood near the end of the kitchen counter."
"I don't." Her voice was sharp. "I'm not fond of the shit you do, who you bring into your bullshit," she said, glancing at Franklin, "but I don't hate you."
Franklin went back outside to her car to check for more bags.
"Hey," Michael said as he watched her put away her groceries. "I understand how you and Frankie might feel. Believe me, I didn't want to bring either of you guys into this."
"Oh yeah? Then why did you?"
She didn't even bother looking at him as she remained concentrated in the task at hand.
"Who else do I have?" Michael asked, but she knew it was rhetorical. "Young, willing, and dependable. That's what I see in both of you. It's a lot better than having to see a face that I never planned on looking at ever again."
"You mean," a deep voice said from the doorway, following Franklin. "My face? You know, I don't get you, Mikey."
"Yeah? What's not to get?"
Karen studied Trevor, surprised to see him standing by her kitchen table. The man looked as though his bomb would tick at any moment.
"You bring two young crew members aboard to, what, drive your ego? So you can know that your ideas are better?"
"Hey, did we not just do whatever your little thing was?"
"Little?" Trevor grated out. "The O'Neil brothers took what was rightfully mine!"
"Frank," Karen's voice spoke out amidst their arguing. "Why is Chop here?"
The three men standing in her home turned their attention to the large Rottweiler comfortably laying on the square space of linoleum flooring by the front door.
"Man, we just came back from a thing," Franklin told her.
"So you all decided to drop by my place?"
"Nah, Trev saw me when I went back outside. I was just dropping Michael off at his house."
"You have a house out here?" Karen asked, turning her attention towards Michael.
"No, to his house," Michael spat out.
She then turned to look at Trevor. "That's your trailer?"
"This is your house?" he returned. "I didn't even know anyone was living in it."
"Well maybe it's because she doesn't have dead bodies laying everywhere around it," Michael quipped. "You know, like how you prefer a home to look."
"Fuck off, Mikey," Trevor shot back, his stare leaving Karen for a split second before his intense eyes landed right back on her. He could have swore that her own eyes trailed down his body before turning back to neatly putting away the food items.
"You guys want some dinner?" she asked as she gathered the last of the plastic bags. "I was planning to make some spaghetti with meat sauce." After placing the plastic bags into the trash can, she moved over to the stove, where a large, tall stainless steel pot was sitting on a back burner. As she went to pull it off the stove so she could fill it up at the sink, she felt someone stand next to her.
"Let me do that," Trevor said to her, taking the hefty pot from her hands. "A lady should never have to do heavy lifting."
"Oh please," Michael said, and Karen could nearly hear the sound of his eyes rolling.
Allowing Trevor to fill up the pot with water, she moved into the living room.
"Make yourselves at home, guys," she said, tossing the remote control onto the couch. "There should be something to watch while dinner is cooking."
Going back to the stove, she placed a large, deep skillet onto the biggest coil in order to start browning the meat for the sauce.
Trevor stood close to her as she worked, walking the pot around her as she told him which burner to place it on. He didn't want to take his eyes off of her. And she smelled so good. Like cupcakes. Surely Michael and Franklin would see fit to tease him if he developed a crush on Karen. But he didn't want to deny his attractions to any beautiful woman he saw.
He took a spot on the loveseat sofa that faced the kitchen, and he continued to glance her way every so often. His mind filtered through everyone he'd ever felt attracted to, and Karen topped every last one of them. But this young woman wouldn't bother with an old creep like him. She had too much to offer a man – a man younger and better looking and better off than he was. A young man like Franklin.
That pained him to realize that Franklin was probably much better off dating Karen. It almost made him grind his teeth. Appreciating older women was something he did often, so why couldn't she appreciate an older man?
And it didn't help any that when dinner was ready, she handed them plates and then sat right next to him. Her scent was almost too distracting to eat, and he felt like he could just drag her to the floor and rut with her like a wild animal. He put his full attention into his food, otherwise, Franklin and Michael might see the start of a show they could never imagine.
"""""
"What are we doing back here?" Karen asked as she slowly opened the door to Franklin's Buffalo.
"I don't know," he replied to her. "Trev asked us to come out for something."
"Well, did he say what? How did he know I was with you anyway?"
"Man, he thinks we're together," Franklin said with a shake of his head. He, too, exited his vehicle.
"Together?" she questioned. "Like together-together?"
"As in boyfriend-girlfriend," he said as she walked around his car to stand near the bottom steps of the staircase that lead up to the apartment doors. "Lovers. More than friends."
Karen burst out in a laughter that she didn't care to contain. "Yeah, okay, I get it. All that touchy-feely stuff is not my forte though."
She adjusted her jacket as they both watched the rusted red pickup truck pull up next to the Buffalo. Trevor stepped out, looking expectantly at the duo.
"Thanks for coming out, guys."
Franklin held out his arms. "Man, what are we here for?"
Trevor ignored his question and bound up the staircase to the apartment door.
"I miss ya already," they heard a voice say. Karen looked around the place where Trevor had thrown together a poorly planned heist. Hell, he hadn't even known what it was they were taking. But Karen saw the endearing side to him. He meant well, even if things didn't turn out well.
A man, Floyd Karen believed his name was, came out out of the apartment, closing the front door behind him.
"What the f word are you doing here?" he asked Trevor as they approached closer.
"That's a funny way to greet your cousin," Trevor miffed.
"You ain't my G-damn cousin, Trevor," Floyd said nervously.
Trevor feigned being shocked. "I thought we was family."
"P-please just go and ruin somebody else's home furnishings."
Then Karen heard a not-so-pleasant female voice from inside the unit.
"Who the F is that, Floyd?"
Floyd looked back towards the front door. "N-no one, my sweet!"
"Hey, by any chance did you catch crabs at that conference?" Trevor called out as he pushed Floyd aside. Franklin and Karen both stepped back some as Trevor kicked the door in, making the woman inside scream.
"Ah! Floyd!"
"I heard that those conferences are regular little fuck fests! Huh? Can I come in?"
Karen placed a hand on Franklin's shoulder as they followed Floyd and Trevor into the apartment.
"I'd like you to leave right now!" the woman shouted. "You and your friends!"
"Oh yeah," Trevor continued as if she had never said anything. "Some serious corporate gangbanging going on, right?" Picking up a glass, he headed to the kitchen sink, filling the cup half way. "Yeah with every executive and director of communications from here to Bangalore, taking it left, right and center in the name of team training, right?"
The woman stayed on Trevor as he sat down on the couch. Karen looked around, noticing that the placed had been cleaned up, seemingly erasing most traces that Trevor had even trashed it at all. But when the woman started screaming again, her eyes snapped back to the brunette.
"I want you to leave!" she said again. "Now!"
"Look, this is all I got, alright? I had a tough upbringing," Trevor said as he turned to face her. "My daddy was not nice to me! Okay?"
Floyd was trying to hold back his lady as Trevor continued on with his rant. Karen would have seen the humor in it had she not be concentrating on the short-haired brunette that looked like she was about to have a stroke over Trevor's words.
"Get out of my condo!" she screamed, her arms wailing about. "And you go too, Floyd! I told you. I've got a career. I don't need this... this... this... crap!"
"Yes!" Trevor shouted.
"There," she said, pointing to Floyd. "You made me swear."
Karen zeroed in on Trevor's face, his expression holding nothing but disbelief over what she considered swearing.
"You're crap, Floyd! Crap! You're not a man at all. Bob's right about you."
"Whoa," Trevor said as he stood up. "Who's Bob?"
The lady, Debra, began walking towards the front door. "I want all of you to go now. Especially your weird friend," she said pointing at Trevor.
"Whoa, hey!" he called out. "My name is Trevor, sweetheart."
Debra charged back towards where Trevor stood. "I could give a fuck what your fucking name is!"
"Hey, what the fuck is your problem?" Karen said from where she stood in the kitchen. "Don't talk to him like that."
Debra laughed out as she looked Karen up and down. "Let me guess... You're the bitch they've been fucking while I was – "
Karen didn't bother letting the woman finish. Grabbing two handfuls of Debra's hair, she simultaneously dragged the woman down to the carpeted flooring of the living room and jumped on top of her. Barely registering Franklin's shouting, or the fact that his arms were trying to pull her off this Debra lady, she landed a few good punches, satisfied when she heard the slight crunch of what would probably be a broken nose.
"My nose!" Debra screamed, her voice shrill. Her hands were guarding her face by the bridge of her nose. "My fucking nose! You bitch!"
After landing a solid, clenched fist to the woman's throat, only then did Karen allow Franklin to pull her off. Franklin kept his arms circled around her waist even after he had pulled her up and pushed her to the far end of the kitchen to the sink.
"Chill, Karen, chill," Franklin repeated.
"I'll show you your bitch!" Karen shouted, nearly escaping around Franklin to get at Debra again. Sniffling, Karen pressed a hand against her own nose, checking to see if there was actually blood trickling down her face. "Don't you ever disrespect us like that again, you prudish little cunt!"
"Hey dude," Franklin said to Floyd. "You better take your woman into the other room before Karen sees fit to rip her fucking face off."
Floyd pulled Debra to her feet, helping her into the bedroom. When the door shut, Franklin lowered his arms.
"You good, Kar?"
"I'd be good if I could break that little snatch's face in half. Goody-two-shoes little twat. I hope her pussy wasn't as big as her fucking mouth was," Karen rambled as she found her way to the front door.
Karen could feel Trevor's heated stare on her as he followed behind Franklin from the apartment.
"Man, what did you need us out here for?" Franklin said as they walked to stand next to their vehicles. "Did you want to see that side of Karen? Because I don't even think you ready for that, dog."
"I wanted you to come with me to the club," Trevor told him. "Gonna have a chit-chat with the manager about a thing or two."
"Alright, dog, for sure." Franklin popped opened the driver's door to his Buffalo. "I'll follow you there."
"Karen," Trevor said in a low tone. "If you'd like to come with us as well, I'll treat you to a drink. I've never seen a woman hold her own like that."
She didn't know what to say to Trevor. But looking into his hazel eyes had melted the anger she had felt for Wade's cousin's fiance.
"Sure," she said. "A drink sounds good right about now."
"You gettin' in, Kar?" Franklin asked, his body half way into the driver seat.
Keeping her eyes locked on Trevor for just a moment longer, she finally tore herself away from the vision of him, curious as to why he enticed her so. She shook it off long enough to walk herself over to the passenger side of Franklin's car.
"Lead the way, boys," she said before lowering herself into the seat and shutting the door.